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Hi All. Sorry for the hiatus... life has been busy, and well, I just haven't felt like writing! XP But trying to get back into it. I'm gonna start with one of my birthday month celebrations back in April.
I love afternoon tea, high tea, tea and pastries, whatever you want to call it. But I mostly love the ones where the mini foods are served on tiered stands. A friend of mine found this place on Instagram and so I booked it for one of my many birthday celebrations. :)
Potpourri of Silk
317 N Zang Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 941-9941
www.potpourriofsilk.com
Price: $40 a person plus tax
A few things to note about this place...
- Tea time is available from 10AM-3:30PM.
- 24 Hour Advance Reservations is required.
- It is BYOB - $10 corking fee per bottle.
- A 15% gratuity will be applied.
- And no children under 13.
- When we went, they had a maximum party size of 6 people, looks like they've upped it to 8 now! Yay.
We went at the beginning of April. For some reason we had a freak cold front that weekend and it was freezing! Luckily it was nice and warm inside. The place is in an old-style house, the decor inside is more traditional, white linens, doilies, etc. Very cute. They had the classic looking tea pots and tea sets too... and the tiered stands! This is what I wanted!
We got to choose our own teas... the tea pots were huge, and I drank a whole one myself. haha. I liked that. I don't like having to ask for refills all the time.
Teas:
Apricot Rose Hips on Black. The other girls loved this one.
Earl Grey Lavendar on Red Rooibos
Japanese Sencha - this one was basically all me. haha. I'm a tea purist... and quite picky. I like the simple green or black teas. The other girls shared the other 2 teas.
These tiered displays are so cute, y'all. Yay. Happy Birthday to me! :P
Tea Sandwiches:
Chicken (diced roasted chicken, shallots, fine herbs, grapes, toasted almonds, aioli, and spinach)
Beef (roasted rosemary beef, cherry tomato, confit, swiss cheese). One of my friends was still hungry so she ordered a whole beef sandwich. They also do lunch here. So you can order sandwiches, and pastries a la carte.
Cucumber (picked cucumber, cream cheese, aioli, lemon, dill, spinach)
All these sandwiches were super tasty. After our last, disappointing tea outing (surprisingly at the famous French Room), our expectations were a bit low. My favorite was the cucumber!! It looks so simple and plain but it had really good flavor!
Short Breads (served with Strawberry Jam and French Buttercream):
Brioche. (the round breads among the sandwiches) Was a tad dry on its own, but cute, and worked well with the jam and buttercream.
Classic Banana Nut Muffin. Yum, we asked for more of this.
Cranberry and Chocolate Scone. I loved the scones. I think it was my favorite sweet item.
Patisserie:
Earl Grey Chocolate Ganache Tart. A little hard to bite into, but good flavor. Let the chocolate melt in your mouth.
Cream Puffs. It was filled to the brim with the sweet buttercream. Too much, too sweet. So I scooped some cream out and it was all good.
We had a really great time. The service was wonderful... very attentive and courteous. The food surprised us all, especially the savory ones for me. So far this has been one of my favorites in Dallas. It's good and still affordable in terms of High Tea. We will be back!!
And thanks to all the lovely ladies that shared this experience with me! Love y'all! :D
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
I love afternoon tea, high tea, any kind of tea + dessert type events where you can relax, eat, and hang out with your friends. :) I went to a few tea places while I was in Vietnam in August, so it was fresh on my mind. So me and another blogger friend of mine decided to take action and actually plan one. We were searching for some options of places to go when I came across someone's Instagram post on the tea at Bangkok on Beltline. Now this was already on my radar, but I had for some reason forgotten about it. They only have high tea on Saturdays from 2-4PM and it's by reservation only because they have to prep all the goodies. The date we had planned was a Saturday so this worked out perfectly. And to our luck, the PR company for Bangkok saw my comment to that post and reached out. Yay!
Bangkok on Beltline - Thai High Tea
100 S Central Expy #108
Richardson, TX 75080
(469) 930-9755
http://www.bangkokatbeltline.com/
Price: $35 per person
Most of the group were already food bloggers so now we are being hosted! Woohoo!! All of us got half off the regular price. It was great, since we were initially planning this as just a casual outing with friends. Yay. Thank you so much for hosting us, Bangkok on Beltline and Red iD Agency!!
I had seen pictures, but it was even prettier in person. We arrived on Saturday and the table was decked out with three 3 tiered tea trays FILLED with beautiful and colorful creations. I think it took us a full 30 minutes to get all of our photos taken... haha. Food bloggers, amiright? :P
We then met the owner of the restaurant and he proceeded to explain all the different items and the progression of the tea service.
We started with the Bottom Tier and work our way up. It has all the savory items. It is also paired with a Chinese Green Tea. With unlimited refills. I think I had 4 cups of this. I drink a lot of tea.. haha. Especially when I'm eating sweets too. The tea is light and unsweetened. There are sugar cubes for those who wanted sweetness.
Pad Thai Croissant. What a creative combination! East meets West. I wished the pad thai was warm, but I think that's kind of hard to do since the tea trays have to be prepared before the party arrives. Also... we took forever taking pictures. haha. The pad thai had a sweetness to it which I wouldn't have liked if I was eating it for dinner, but since this is mainly pastries and desserts, it worked well with the buttery croissant.
Chicken Satay Sandwich. This was my favorite. It had really great flavor. Almost a curry flavor in there.
Yellow Curry Puffs (filled with potato). This was also really good. The crust was flaky, not dry. The potato had good flavor. I'm assuming this is a vegetarian friendly item.
Middle Tier:
This one is paired with Chrysanthemums Tea, one of my favorite teas of all time. When I go to dim sum, I ALWAYS have to order this. It's a flower, and you can definitely get the florally fragrance when you sip it. I lost count on how many cups I had of this one. haha.
This tier had most of the Asian influenced desserts.
Black Rice Pudding (with coconut milk, palm seed jelly on top). Reminded me of all those Asian desserts I grew up eating. I enjoyed the rice pudding texture and I love coconut milk. Can't say I've had palm seed jelly before though. Yay for trying new things!
Rice Crackers with Caramel Coconut Sauce. The rice crackers were Asian style... so there's basically no sweetness to it. Just the slight nuttiness from the rice. If you are expecting a rice crispies treat, this ain't it. You can spread some of the caramel sauce over the rice crackers. The sauce itself was quite interesting. It was almost more savory than sweet... reminded me a bit like peanut sauce in Vietnamese/Thai cuisine.
Sticky Rice (with Thai Coconut Custard). I still don't fully know what all is in this. But the sticky rice was inside a layer of pastry or something. I liked this a lot, especially the coconut custard.
Top Tier:
Unsweet Thai Tea was served with this tier. I was curious to try it because I've never had Thai tea without the condensed milk or sugar... I really liked it. It almost tasted sweet on its own without adding sugar. It went really well with this tier. Actually all of the teas were paired really well with their respective tiers. I was quite impressed!
Pistachio and Raspberry Macarons. Beautifully made macarons. The colors were so pretty with the Matcha Tiramisu. The textures of both macarons were both really good. I especially loved the pistachio's flavor.
Green Tea Tiramisu (with red bean). This was the favorite of the group. Not only was it beautiful, it was delicious. The matcha cream had a rich matcha taste. I was surprised to find a layer of red bean in there, which added an interesting texture. Again, this is where the Asian influences play into a typical dessert. Definitely one of the best desserts in the display. I wished I could've taken some home... but it was in a glass so I couldn't.
We also got some of their signature Flower Sesame Cookies. These are light and crispy and really cool looking!
We were all stuffed! Some people couldn't even finish all of the different items. A few of the girls came in and scoffed at the amount of food saying they were still gonna be hungry after. They ate their words. It was a lot. I would recommend eating a very light lunch or none at all before you go to high tea in general. You'd be surprised how much little sandwiches and cakes can fill you up! Plus you're drinking a ton of tea. Well, at least I was. I had to go to the bathroom twice!! haha. I think I drank well over 10 cups total.
We had SO MUCH FUN! It was a super unique experience with the Thai inspired flavors. I've definitely never had a tea experience like this before. For the price point, this is a great value in Dallas for high tea. Most other places I know are at least $50+ a person. I highly recommend you try this. Great for a girls' day out, or a bridal shower. I'd even do this for a birthday party! :)
Thanks again for hosting us!! :)
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
The celebration for my last day of school continues. After a yummy dinner at LA Burger, we decided to get some dessert at Cafe Brown Sugar. I've known about this place ever since it opened, just never got a chance to go. However, I didn't have high expectations for it since I've heard hit/miss reviews on the food and prices. Still, the pictures always look amazing and I wanted to check it out for myself!
Cafe Brown Sugar
2625 Old Denton Rd. Ste 406
Carrollton, TX 75007
(972) 446-6633
Price: $-$$
This place is pretty cute the inside looks like the outside of some Italian little town or something. It's a really big space too. 2 stories, so lots of seating. They open fairly late (11pm) so it's a cool place to hang out with your friends after dinner. You order at the counter, they give you a buzzer, then you go pick up your order.
They had way more stuff on the menu than I expected. This puts in a difficult place because I now want to try EVERYTHING. I was initially thinking of their epic waffles but then I saw they had Macaron Ice Cream sandwiches?!? OMG. The only time I've ever seen that was in LA (at Umami and MILK). And it was amazing. I had to try this.
Cookies n Cream Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich $4.50~
You pick the ice cream flavor and the color of the macaron. The different colors of the macarons didn't have different flavors. I was like "uh.. ok..?" But I picked blue. They ended up giving me purple. So I still don't fully understand the colors if they don't taste differently. The ice cream sandwich is very pretty. But I think they need to rethink the shape of it. It's too tall... VERY hard to bite from top to bottom. I had to eat it in sections. If only they can make wider macarons, and squish the ice cream down flatter. Kind of like a whoopie pie or something. Then it would be perfect. I love using macarons on the outside of ice cream sandwiches. I think it works way better than cookies, which usually crumble or smoosh the ice cream. The macaron holds up better, surprisingly. I enjoyed it. Not as great as the ones from LA, but it's the first I've seen in Dallas so I'll take it!
Green Tea Waffle $3.99~
I was greedy. I wasn't even hungry but I still wanted that waffle. I noticed that you can just get a waffle (comes with butter and maple syrup) for $4. Which is way better than the other ones for over $11! Geez! It certainly looks like a green tea waffle... but I couldn't taste much of it. I liked the crisp outside, but the inside was also kinda crisp. Not enough fluffy/soft center. It was ok. I wouldn't get it again..
Honey Butter Toast.
I forget how much this was.. it wasn't cheap though. I think also close to $10. My fiance was set on this from the get go. We've had honey toast in Japan before so he was excited to have it again. It definitely looked pretty epic! Almost as big as my head! Definitely a knife and fork dessert and SHARE! Actually, most of the desserts here are made for sharing. Unless you are just a super beast or your goal is to be in a sugar coma. I wish the scoop on top of the bread is ice cream, but it's a scoop of butter. TOO MUCH! Bleh... we took it off. The toast is already semi buttered on the inside. The outside was nice and crispy, the inside was fluffy. It was pretty good. A little dry... needed more honey. Luckily the maple syrup from my waffle was there to the rescue. Not as good as Asia, but then again, nothing in Dallas really is... It's worth trying. Maybe ask for a few scoops of ice cream on the side though.
My friends got some of the epic waffles...
Cookies n Cream Waffle (chocolate waffle with oreo ice cream, banana, honeydew, pineapple, strawberry, crushed oreo, chocolate sauce) $11ish~
Coffee Lovers Waffle (coffee? waffle with coffee ice cream, banana, honeydew, pineapple, strawberry, crushed oreo, and I think caramel sauce?) $11ish~
Both looked very impressive. I had too much myself to try theirs. They said it was pretty good. So maybe I'll try it next time. Or I'll use my waffle maker and make it myself at home for a fraction of the price. hahaha.
I'd go back again. Next time I'll try something new.
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
I came across this place on Yelp while researching for places to eat in Houston. Snow ice, a Taiwanese dessert that is basically shaved flavored ice. It creates these amazing ribbon-ish shapes and it's almost like eating ice cream. But... it's ice! And probably less fattening. :P
I have it in Taiwan whenever I go back to visit. And in the past few years, Dallas started getting a few places that sell this. However, nothing is as good as what you get in Taiwan.
Hippo Ice
3737 Hwy 6
Sugar Land, TX 77478
(832) 532-7562
Price: $
I was excited because this place was close to Sugar Land where they live. Normally you'd have to go into Houston (Bellaire) to get good Asian food, so the short drive is nice.
We went on the Sunday before Labor Day, the place looked closed when we arrived, I got worried. Luckily it wasn't! We took a look at the menu and my fiance told me he was getting his own. I asked "are you sure?" since they're usually piled pretty high and he said yes. So I guess we're all getting our own! Sharing is for the weak. hahahaha. :P
I got the Genmai Matcha (Brown Rice Green Tea) $4.75~ Plus Ghiradelli Chocolate drizzle and sliced almonds +$0.50~
I love how snow ice looks, so whimsical, beautiful and weird. haha. This was yummy. I liked the dark chocolate sauce paired with the green tea. My fiance said the chocolate overwhelmed the ice flavor. For me it didn't. And the almonds were a nice added texture. It was a huge bowl. He was pretty shocked when he saw this. The texture of the ice is pretty comparable to Taiwan, although I think the one's in Taiwan is even creamier and fluffier. But this is definitely better than any of the ones I've tried in Dallas.
Genmai Matcha (Brown Rice Green Tea) $4.75~ Plus Condensed milk and red bean +$0.50~
He also wanted green tea but with different sauce and toppings. Green tea and red bean are always a winning combo. The condensed milk added another level of richness. Also very delicious.
Almond $4.75~ Plus Tapioca (boba) +$0.50~
His sister chose the almond flavor. Which was my 2nd choice. The almond flavor was strong, yet the whole thing was light and refreshing. I think that was the winner, even though they were all good.
Watermelon Basil (to-go) $4.75~
His sister was meeting up with a friend after so she got this to go. So pretty. We got to try a bite. Very interesting. You can definitely taste the basil. And super refreshing. I'm just not sure how long it would last during transport. hehe. I hope her friend was able to enjoy the fluffiness of the snow ice.
My fiance and his sister both really enjoyed it. It was their first time trying snow ice. And guess what, none of us finished it... hahaha. Snow ice - 1, Us - 0.
This place is legit, for all you people in Sugar Land. No need to fight the traffic and drive to Bellaire! Now I only wish we can get this quality in Dallas...
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
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